Exoplanet

This complex app, Exoplanet, is an extremely educational free app made for iOS (version 17.1.0). It is designed to provide interactive visualizations and animations in order to share information on all known exoplanets. An exoplanet is a planet orbiting stars beyond our own Solar System. This app is designed for anyone ages 4 and up. Exoplanet is advertised as extremely accurate and anyone using it can be assured that they can rely on its data having been developed and maintained by a professional astronomer. The app is also visually pleasing. For instance, if the milky way option is selected you are given a wonderful visualization of the Milky Way galaxy with labels to include the Sun. You can zoom in or search for any star, constellation, or planet and it will show you the location of the searched star or planet and along with its surroundings. This app is chalked full of information! You can choose any planet and it will give you information such as the mass, radius, density, orbital period, and more! This app would be great for projects or research because it provides information on the Milky Way, extrasolar planets, spacecrafts, asteroids, galaxy clusters, and cosmic microwave background. The more I researched it the more I realized that this app exceeded my expectations! If you’re looking for an intriguing app full of information about space, Exoplanet is for you!

I've enjoyed this app for several years and regularly use it to show my friends around the solar system, galaxy, and universe. The number and variety of exoplanets found so far is amazing and I love wandering the database looking for new and interesting systems. Some of my favorite usually include Jupiter size planets that are in comet like orbits. I know they are horrible on the chance of life but they gotta look cool. Screaming in at huge speeds whipping through perigee with crazy chemistry boiling away and the solar winds stripping the lighter stuff off in what must occasionally be an amazing tail! Anyways, check out the app.

This is a fantastic app. Over all of the years I have had it, I never once deleted it because it is always expanding. The great thing about this app is that it gives you such a great picture of the known universe. In my opinion, the in app purchases are a must, and exponentially increase the capabilities of the app. The one thing I would like to see is textures added to the planets. It disappoints me that every planet is just a ball with a name on it. If you made a dozen or so textures for different types of planets the app would be much more engaging, and the solar systems would look much more alive without being unrealistic. Make some textures and I will give you five stars.

For what to some may seem an esoteric subject, this app can open their eyes to the possibilities of, literally, other worlds. A very worthwhile use of time, with it you learn not only how many worlds there are in the neighborhood, but also what to expect. The included, and simple-to-use correlation diagramming feature effectively teaches how to look at a typical large dataset, an invaluable teaching aide for life. I find this feature particularly fun: change a parameter, study the resulting chart and quickly get an idea of what kinds of worlds are close by. For example, Earth is actually on the smallish scale of the typical planet out there. Many planets in the habitable zone are two, five, ten or more times larger, creating huge surface areas by comparison. Scaled up, imagine if getting to Europe was a 100,000km (33,000 miles or so) overwater journey! Two thumbs up and five stars, guys!

While exploring the program's Milky Way feature There was an option to explore local galaxies. That feature cost extra money but it was well worth it. It is the first time I've been able to explore in 3-D local structure of our universe and all its splendor. I totally love this program and I have one major complaint, a feature that was added in at some point… When viewing the Milky Way stars on the side angle you can make out the spiral arms but when you view it had on it superimposes a fake photograph of the Milky Way galaxy. There should be a settings option to disable the fake photograph.